1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods of enhancing information regarding potential customers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Businesses, or other commercial entities, that sell products and/or services may acquire information regarding potential customers, clients, or business associates from several sources. For example, information regarding a potential customer, client, or business associate, referred to herein as a “lead,” may be shared among related businesses. Alternatively, leads may be acquired through marketing efforts by the business, such as radio advertisements, Internet advertising, or seminars, where lists of leads are produced through the marketing efforts. Additionally, leads may be “harvested” from media sources, such as newspapers, magazines, trade journals, websites, and/or message boards, for example. Leads may be acquired in any of these manners, or in other manners, by lead brokers that specialize in compiling leads and selling the leads to other entities. Thus, leads may be acquired from various sources.
The information included in a lead commonly includes contact information regarding the potential customer, such as a telephone number, residential address, and/or email address. However, depending on the source of the lead, this contact information may be incomplete or incorrect, thus making the task of contacting the lead difficult. For example, if a lead does not include a telephone number or includes an incorrect telephone number for the potential customer, the business may need to do further research locating the correct phone number or may not be able to contact the potential customer. If the contact information is missing or incorrect in a lead, the business potentially loses not only costs associated with acquiring the lead, but also costs associated with attempting to contact the lead and/or researching the correct contact information for the lead.
Depending on the source of leads, a lead list may comprise one or more leads that include information that does not accurately correspond with the potential customer. For example, businesses or lead brokers may acquire leads through marketing efforts wherein a potential customer provides contact information in exchange for free or discounted products or services, for example. However, potential customers often realize that by providing their contact information, there is a possibility that later communications from the business, lead broker, or other entity to which the contact information is sold, may be received. Accordingly, if a potential customer does not want to risk any subsequent contacts, the potential customer may provide a false name, address, and/or other contact information to the business or lead broker. Alternatively, the potential customer may not provide any telephone, address, and/or other contact information. Accordingly, leads comprising this missing and/or inaccurate information do not provide the business using the lead with information that allows them to contact the potential customer and, thus, are of little or no value to the business.
Businesses that make use of leads often receive new leads periodically, such as daily, weekly, or monthly, and attempt to contact the leads to convert the potential customers to customers. For example, a business may have a weekly seminar regarding products and services that may be marketed to potential customers, where the potential customers attending the seminar are asked to provide a name and contact information to the business. Thus, after each seminar, the business has a new lead list comprising information regarding multiple potential customers. However, there is a possibility that the same potential customers attend multiple of these seminars and, thus, is listed on multiple lead lists. Similarly, if a business purchases leads from one or more lead brokers, there is a possibility that the same lead is listed on two or more lead lists, or even multiple times on a single lead list. Thus, the business may unknowingly contact a potential customer multiple times, reducing human resources that are available for non-duplicate leads.